i was trying to find a specific post that i half-remembered at like 4am last night but out of context this is really funny
FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley | THE MODERN PROMETHEUS, Nicole Mello | FRANKENSTEIN, Alexander Utz | MONSTER, Neal Bell | FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley | HENRY CLERVAL SCOLDING VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN: AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC POEM ABOUT GRADUATE STUDENTS AND THEIR DAEMONS, Adam D. Henze | FRANKENSTEIN, Alexander Utz | FRANKENSTEIN: A NEW MUSICAL, Mark Baron | FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley.
clervalstein, over several adaptations
Very conscious that across the board Basil is emotionally disconnected and wrapped up in his own head and actively avoids reassessing his ingrained opinions and that this is key to his downfall etc… but I’m really realising the degree to which Basil does not process anything Dorian says?
Exhibit A:
Dorian Gray turned and looked at him. “I believe you would, Basil. You like your art better than your friends. I am no more to you than a green bronze figure. Hardly as much, I dare say.”
The painter stared in amazement. It was so unlike Dorian to speak like that. What had happened? He seemed quite angry. His face was flushed and his cheeks burning.
“Yes,” he continued, “I am less to you than your ivory Hermes or your silver Faun. You will like them always. How long will you like me? Till I have my first wrinkle, I suppose. […]”
Minutes later:
The painter bit his lip and walked over, cup in hand, to the picture. “I shall stay with the real Dorian,” he said, sadly.
“Is it the real Dorian?” cried the original of the portrait, strolling across to him. “Am I really like that?”
“Yes; you are just like that.”
“How wonderful, Basil!”
“At least you are like it in appearance. But it will never alter,” sighed Hallward. “That is something.”
Exhibit B:
“[…] I am changed, but you must always be my friend. Of course, I am very fond of Harry. But I know that you are better than he is. You are not stronger–you are too much afraid of life–but you are better. And how happy we used to be together! Don’t leave me, Basil, and don’t quarrel with me. I am what I am. There is nothing more to be said.“
Minutes later:
“[…] But you mustn’t talk about worship. It is foolish. You and I are friends, Basil, and we must always remain so.“
“You have got Harry,” said the painter sadly.
Addition: I have realised on pasting these back-to-back how much the problem for Dorian with Basil’s self-diminishing shows up here… Because Basil has already designated himself this role of passiveness, unimportance, and lack of value to Dorian’s life relative to his own feelings, he either refuses to or isn’t capable of processing anything contradictory. This then internally absolves him of any responsibility for affecting Dorian’s emotional state, as he doesn’t acknowledge he has the capacity to do so to any significant degree - not to have his words taken on as genuinely hurtful, and simultaneously not to have his presence be genuinely wanted.
I really enjoy neurodivergent readings of classic literature because the whole "i have an obsession with being pure/great/always seen as morally good" "sometimes I get obsessed with an idea and believe I'm on the right path and don't act rationally" "i feel uneasy and incapable of enjoying things since [traumatic event(s)]" "I feel alienated from society and don't understand it at all" bunch of thoughts that are very present in most classics are almost always big symptoms of some kind of mental illness (which, in fact, does add a lot to the story) and I love to see people talk about them from that perspective instead of just "lol this guy is whiny and dumb"
meant to post this the other day but it's so fascinating how victor and the creature's roles have reversed during the chase. victor seeks to find him, rather them him seeking to find victor. creator has become creation, and creation has become creator, because destruction is creation all on it's own, and he destroyed victor. the creature is the hideous other because victor made him that way, and now victor is alone and miserable because the creature made him that way. victor might've made a walking corpse, but the creature created the living dead...
victor: my childhood was sunshine and roses 😁
victor’s childhood: neglect, parentification, arranged marriage as a child to his sister/cousin, has to raise his younger sibling(s) from the age of 6, heavy favoritism among siblings, father is dismissive of his interests, sick brother, sick sister, dead mother
In electromagnetism, inductance is the tendency of an electrical conductor to oppose a change in the electric current flowing through it. It has units of Henry, and for small inductance it can be denoted in units of microhenries (μH). So, the entire time we were covering this in my physics class, i was suffering from my severe frankenstein brainrot, and this is the result lol
Read a bit of the letters from the book so now I have this